Why do we say certain things when people sneeze? There's a history connected to that.

Anything that bothers the nerve ends in the mucous membranes of the sinuses can cause sneezing, which is called sternutation. When the skin gets irritated, it sends signals to the brain stem. The brain stem controls many of the body’s basic processes, such as breathing.

After that, the brain tells the body to move immediately. As the body inhales hard, the glottis, a slit-like opening between the vocal cords, snaps shut. The eyes close, and the body contracts. After that comes the “achoo,” a strong exhale that has to go up through the nose because the glottis is closed. The exhale gets rid of the irritants.

A sneeze can send out up to 40,000 droplets, many of which are full of germs and viruses. The droplets move at speeds ranging from 100 to 600 miles per hour. That is a quick and dirty way to do it.

Sneezing is a natural response to an irritant in the environment or, perhaps, a cold you might have. When someone sneezes, you notice that in many cultures, there is an automatic response to people surrounding that person, and the response is, “God bless you.”

What would be the reason that you would have to give that person a blessing, or have you never thought about it? It has an interesting history that carries over to today as a courtesy, devoid of its origin.

The ancient Romans and Greeks believed that sneezing was a good way to maintain health and expel evil spirits. If we consider viruses evil spirits, that would be OK today. But they weren’t the only ones to have this belief, and it was carried over into the Middle Ages, where sneezing might show that someone might have been exposed to the plague, and it would be best to leave their company quickly. Imagine everybody running away when you sneezed. It doesn’t sound reasonable.

If the bubonic plague (see Poe’s story, “The Masque of the Red Death”) were running rampant in Europe, wouldn’t it make sense not to be around people who were sneezing? Some, not wanting to worry about sneezers, bolted the door against anyone who wished to come into their home and thought that they could, by that action, seal themselves off from the plague.

One religious leader, Pope Gregory, is most often quoted as encouraging people to offer this brief prayer for the sneezer’s health. However, it was still believed that evil forces might attempt to take hold of one’s soul, and a sneeze was a way of guarding against this.

In addition to evil forces attempting to take over someone soul, the belief was that the soul might leave the body during the sneeze or that the person would be vulnerable for an evil spirit to enter. There are, of course, different variations for the languages of the world, but they basically all mean the same thing.

Besides evil forces attempting to take over someone’s soul, the belief was that the soul might leave the body during the sneeze or that the person would be vulnerable for an evil spirit to enter. There are, of course, different variations for the languages of the world, but they basically all mean the same thing.

Medicine has had its own view of sneezing. Hippocrates, often seen as the father of modern medicine, indicated that sneezing was a way to expel harmful substances from the lungs. However, there is another belief, or rather a myth, that has held for quite some time. Some people think that the heart stops momentarily during a sneeze and that it is dangerous.

The heart does not stop during sneezing but may make some slight adjustments very briefly due to the change in pressure in our chest. However, it maintains its normal electrical activity and there is no danger, medically, in sneezing.

Sneezing serves many purposes, and one of them is to clear the nose; another is to act as a warning, either to us or to those around us, that we may be coming down with a virus.

Medical professionals have taught us that the best thing to do when you're going to sneeze is to ensure that you sneeze into your elbow and not allow it to release all of those droplets into the air. Children, in particular, should be taught to sneeze into their elbows. It sounds like such a simple thing to do, and yet many people fail to take this precaution.